This indicator describes a major service that ES provides to its customer base via the HR Tower -- that being the timely processing of Personnel Action Requests (PARs) which are used to accommodate all categories of pay and non-pay related personnel changes for in-scope bureau employees. Examples include (but are not limited to) interim appointments, return-toduty, change-in-duty station, cash awards, relocation incentive, locality pay, and many others. The sources for these data are: Treasury HR system (HRConnect); NFC Payment system (PAYE and subsystems); ES ServiceNow system; and the ES Tableau Data.

This measure tracks the percentage of Fish Stock Sustainability Index (FSSI) fish stocks for which adequate assessments are available. Assessments are vital to determine the scientific basis for supporting and evaluating the impact of fishery management actions. To be deemed adequate, assessments must be based on recent quantitative information sufficient to determine current stock status (abundance and mortality) relative to established reference levels and to forecast stock status under different management scenarios

Ensures external network traffic passing through a TIC or Managed Trusted Internet Protocol Services (MTIPS) provider.

This measure reflects the timeliness of the first office action as measured from the date of application filing (or notification date for 66(a) filings) to the first office action in months.

This measures the number of Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) executed. A CRADA is a written agreement between a private company and NOAA to work together on a project. A CRADA allows NOAA and non-Federal partners to optimize their resources, share technical expertise in a protected environment, share intellectual property emerging from the effort, and speed the commercialization of NOAA developed technology. The CRADA, which is not an acquisition or procurement vehicle, is designed to be a relatively easy mechanism to implement, requiring less time and effort to initiate than previous methods for working with non-government organizations.

This measure captures the results of ITA’s front-line diplomatic engagement with foreign governments in support of a U.S. company or industry. A Written Impact Narrative (WIN) occurs when a foreign government action/decision as a result of engagement results in the following outcomes for a U.S. company or industry: reduced/removed/prevented trade barrier; reduced/removed threat to U.S. business/economic interest; foreign compliance with a trade agreement; facilitated an export transaction; or, a U.S. company has a signed contract for a foreign procurement. The measure tends to fluctuate over time as the outcome (foreign governments agreeing to voluntarily honor trade agreement obligations) is dependent on actions by sovereign nations which are outside of direct U.S. control.

Ongoing near real-time awareness and assessment of information security risks to support risk management decisions

This measure tracks the number of dives that use imagery/video as well as other sensors that provided a multidisciplinary first-look at an unknown or poorly understood area of the ocean. These data can be collected using a variety of platforms including ROVs, AUVs, ASVs, etc. OER recognizes a distinction between exploration and characterization. Exploration is conducted using a suite of tools and techniques that provides a multidisciplinary first-look at an unknown or poorly understood area of the ocean. The outcome is intended to be sufficient to inform follow-on characterization, which provides comprehensive data for a specific area of interest of the seafloor, sub-bottom, and/or water column that supports specific research, resource management, policymaking, or applied mission objectives (this is not depth dependant unlike the mapping statistics).

Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) was established by the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 and provides for day-for-day adjustment of patent term (i.e., the period of time a patent is in force) for certain USPTO administrative delays (“the 14-4-4-4-36 timeframes”) for certain patent applications.  The specified timeframes are to:  issue an Office Action within 14 months after application filing, respond to a reply or appeal within four months, act on the application within four months after a decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) or from a Federal court, and issue the patent within four months after payment of the issue fee. Additionally, a 36-month timeframe applies if the USPTO does not issue a patent within three years of the filing date or national stage commencement, with certain exceptions.  Further, time consumed by interference or derivation proceedings, delays caused by placing the application under a secrecy order under 35 U.S.C. 181, or time consumed by a successful appellate review may result in positive patent term adjustment (PTA). Any positive PTA is offset by any period that an applicant failed to engage in reasonable efforts to conclude prosecution. This measure reports the PTA for all remaining inventory.